I was asked to photograph the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Baker To Vegas teams in the 30th Annual race held at the end of March.  Baker To Vegas is a 20-leg relay covering 120 miles between Baker, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.  The teams are made up of law enforcement from all over the US, parts of Canada, and sometimes European Countries.  You can learn more about the event at their official website, http://www.BakerVegas.com.

This was the first time I attended the event and we knew we had a long day ahead of us.  We started out from our hotel in Vegas at about 1pm to catch our first team at leg 7.  Our second team wasn’t scheduled to start until 5pm.  It takes about 30 minutes to drive each leg with all the race traffic and safety considerations, so we were really limited to mostly covering just the one team.  We were able to double back and catch at the team captain of the second team shortly after sundown.  We were on the road until about 11:30 pm, returned to the hotel to catch a few hours of shut eye, and were back in action by 3:30am.  I shot in the dark until sunrise and headed back to the hotel about 7:30am for a nap and shower before brunch.

Overall I was really impressed, not only with the race itself, but the runners that were tackling some monster hills in the relentless desert sun.  I have to give a shout out to Commander Stewart for mastering the very difficult leg 7 with a smile on his face.

I’d love to shoot the event again now that I have a better idea of how everything works and speed and access available to me.  It was a great experience.  Another shout out to my driver for getting me where I needed to be–you know who you are!